This live Webcast of a Secretary Riley speech on technology and
education may be of interest -- also some related announcements on
technology from the US Dept. of Education.
Bob McLaughlin
Co-Director
Eisenhower Regional Alliance
TERC
---------- Forwarded message ----------
ALL CLASSROOMS CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET;
ALL STUDENTS TECHNOLOGY LITERATE
----------------------------------------- On Wednesday, July
29, 8:45 a.m. - 9:45 a.m. Eastern time, Secretary Riley will
deliver a speech on "Technology & Education: An Investment
in Equity & Excellence" that will be broadcast live on the
web. The speech, to the National Young Leaders Conference
in Washington, D.C., will focus on the exciting
possibilities that technology offers to enhance education in
the 21st century & on the importance of ensuring equal
access for all. Senator John Glenn will also speak. The
live webcast (& an archived file of the speech) will be at:
http://www.broadcast.com/news/dc/doed
SEVEN PARTNERSHIPS OF TEACHERS & federal agencies will each
receive up to $50,000 to develop online learning modules &
communities, Secretary Riley announced this month. "These
partnerships will allow students to use primary documents,
scientists, & other federal resources as springboards for
learning," Riley said. He noted that the partnerships will
also "build 'online learning communities' of students,
teachers, scholars & others who use & contribute to the
materials." For example:
* Teachers & the National Archives & Records
Administration (NARA) will organize "The Constitution
Community," which will develop dozens of lessons &
learning activities based on online images of the
Louisiana Purchase, the Treaty of Paris, Rosa Parks'
arrest record, & other primary documents.
* Teachers & NASA will develop lessons for use during the
upcoming wind tunnel test of the Wright brothers' first
airplane (flown at Kitty Hawk). Students will
manipulate data generated by the test & learn about
lift, drag, thrust, & other aeronautics concepts.
Ten planning efforts will also receive $5,000 to create
plans to develop Internet-based learning materials. Funding
comes from the Government Information Technology Services
Board (GITSB) Innovation Fund, administered by the General
Services Administration. The press release & descriptions
of what partnerships will do are at the FREE website:
http://www.ed.gov/free/
---------
YEAR 2000
--------- The Department's Year 2000 team is continuing to
alert the education community about the urgency of the Year
2000 problem, which results from a common computer
programming practice of representing dates with 6 digits
instead of 8. The team, in partnership with the U.S.
Department of Agriculture's Food & Nutrition Service (FNS),
recently asked state agencies that administer the school
breakfast & lunch program to submit a status report on their
efforts to ensure that their computer systems & technology
are Year 2000 compliant. The Department's Year 2000 website
is at:
http://www.ed.gov/offices/OCIO/year/